By DavidS91 (198.81.26.103) on Thursday, April 01, 2004 - 11:11 am:

Hi folks. I'm sure it's no secret to anyone who's heard me on other Blue Magic threads that I'm a big fan. One of the songs that I've had trouble getting a clean copy of has been "Guess Who" which was the flip side of their first single, "Spell."

I've only heard scratchy-sounding 45's of the song and was looking to get a nice, clean copy (since it's never been on CD). So... the other day I picked up a near mint DJ copy of the 45 and found something interesting...

The original A-side of the single was "Guess Who." I thought (especially since "Spell" was included on their first LP and "Guess Who" wasn't) that "Spell" was the A-side.

Not so. The DJ copy clearly states that "Guess Who" was the one they wanted radio to play.

By E (68.163.58.19) on Thursday, April 01, 2004 - 11:21 am:

Thats right Steve, although in the studio, to us Spell was THE one.
same thing hapened with Il be around.
How couldI let you get away was the "plug side" and then some dj fliped it, and voila!!!

By roger (217.35.87.17) on Thursday, April 01, 2004 - 12:23 pm:

Mr Eli.

I used to have a U.K. copy of "I'll be Around", on the red and blue Atlantic label, that I would have bought within a day or two of its release in 1972. By that time the song would have been in the upper reaches of the U.S. charts (we were a bit behind in those days), and it still had "How Could I Let You Get Away" as the official "A", in spite of the success of "I'll be Around"!!

Sometimes record companies were SO out of touch!

Roger

By DavidS91 (198.81.26.103) on Thursday, April 01, 2004 - 12:51 pm:

Hmmm... I wonder how many other hits were originally b-sides... here are a few I know...

Earth Angel - The Penguins (originally "Hey Senorita" was the A-Side)

Na Na Na Na Hey Hey Goodbye - Steam (this was originally the B-Side)

The Horse - Cliff Nobles and Co. (I believe the A-Side was the one with the vocal)

I'm sure there are a lot more...

By roger (217.35.87.17) on Thursday, April 01, 2004 - 12:59 pm:

DavidS91

I can add a few more -

"Precious Precious" by JACKIE MOORE.

"My Cherie Amour" by STEVIE WONDER.

And a U.K. #1 for ODYSSEY "Use it Up and Wear it Out", which started as the "B" side of "Don't Tell Me Tell Her".

Roger

By Handsome (170.118.158.14) on Thursday, April 01, 2004 - 01:04 pm:

Aretha also had some B sides that got flipped.

Handsome

By KevGo (64.115.26.80) on Thursday, April 01, 2004 - 03:12 pm:

Lulu's "To Sir With Love" was originally a B-side - her version of Neil Diamond's "The Boat That I Row" was the designated A-side. Radio DJs knew better.

Sammy Davis Jr.'s "I Gotta Be Me" was released as a B-side but it was done so for a reason. Reprise A&R chief & producer Jimmy Bowen loved the song but wanted to be sure that it would get airplay. So he had Sammy cut "Bein' Natural, Bein' Me" which was a okay song and placed that on the A-side. The trick worked - DJs flipped over the record and made "I Gotta Be Me" a hit (this is according to Bowen's autobiography "Rough Mix").

Kevin Goins - KevGo

By Nosey (66.153.113.238) on Thursday, April 01, 2004 - 03:37 pm:

Same thing happened with Purple Raindrops in Philly. Don't know what was the A side but I could of sworn I was the one that told somebody to turn the record over at one of our Friday night sets at Shirley's house. Yep, it was I!

By Juicefree20 (151.205.100.23) on Thursday, April 01, 2004 - 09:31 pm:

What's up Nosey Purple Raindrops was the B-Side of Uptight.

Juice